Founders of Black Lives Matter on Starting a Global Movement

In a year filled with unforgettable moments, there’s one in particular that stands out for Patrisse Cullors. On June 7, after more than a week of global protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death, an estimated 100,000 people marched in Los Angeles. Aerial shots of the demonstration, which was organized by Black Lives Matter's L.A. division, pictured a sea of protesters taking over Hollywood Boulevard. “I think that was the largest Black Lives Matter protest in the history of Los Angeles,” says Cullors, one of the three original co-founders of BLM, “and the footage is just gorgeous.” For Cullors and her fellow BLM co-founders—Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi—this moment had been a long time coming. In 2013, when the three women established the movement, the idea of any corporation speaking out against systemic racism (even performatively) was widely considered a radical notion. This was three years before former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in protest and four years before Merriam-Webster officially added “woke” to the dictionary. The years that followed were punctuated by numerous false starts, moments where tragedy triggered nationally recognized protests—like the 2015 Baltimore riots, which followed the death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray, whose neck and spine were severed while he was being transported in a police van—but didn’t quite lead to a seismic shift in how predominantly white spaces or major corporations discussed racism. Americans would witness a similar pattern with an all-too-long list of slain Black civilians who died at the hands of police: Botham Jean, Sandra Bland, Stephon Clark, Atatiana Jefferson and countless others. But the movement gained new urgency when 46-year-old George Floyd lost his life after officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for an uninterrupted seven minutes and 46 seconds in Minneapolis on May 23, 2020. Coming amid a global pandemic and worldwide quarantines, the incident proved to be a turning point for BLM—and for leaders and industries at large. On June 6, CNN teamed with Sesame Street for Coming Together, a town hall geared toward talking to children and families about racism. Celebrities and public figures such as Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lopez and even former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney marched alongside protesters in support of BLM. Actor John Boyega gives an emotional speech in London's Hyde Park during a BLM rally in London on June 3: 'Black lives have always mattered. We have always been important. We have always meant something.' Many celebrities have joined protests around the world, including singers Halsey and Ariana Grande, actress Tessa Thompson and model Emily Ratajkowski. Coca-Cola, Google, Lululemon and hosts of other companies donated millions of dollars to community funds and organizations committed to fighting for racial justice. Former President Barack Obama, whom Garza notes “struggled with the framework” of the movement during his presidency, praised the protests in an address from his home. “To see the president embrace it and to know that actually there was a whole process that he had gone through was actually very powerful,” she recounts. The world was actually talking, and Black Lives Matter, believed to be the largest movement in U.S. history, was leading the conversation. In London, just one day after L.A.’s June 7 protest, thousands of activists braved the rain to flood Parliament Square with dewy homemade signs as they chanted “Black Lives Matter” and Floyd’s name in tandem. By that time, similar demonstrations had been unfolding in Rome, Madrid, Paris, New Zealand, South America, Africa and Asia. Images of mobilized citizens all around the world connected in a mosaic of hope as the globe sent a unified message. In recognition of their extraordinary influence as a force for change, Adweek and Adcolor are honored to present Cullors, Garza and Tometi with our second annual Beacon Award. To date, Black Lives Matter rallies and protests are still taking place across the U.S. When police in Kenosha, Wis., shot Jacob Blake at close range on Aug. 23, there were BLM protests in the area within hours. “We saw large marches and rallies in previous years, so that's not unusual,” Tometi says, “but I think seeing it at the scale that we've seen it now is notable. It’s something worth celebrating because, to me, it illustrates how the scales of apathy have finally been tipped.” How it began One February evening in Central Florida back in 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking home from a trip to the corner store. Former Sanford neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman was also out that night. He saw Martin. Per Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel, who was on the phone with him just before he died, Martin said he was being followed just before she heard a man question him as to why he was in the neighborhood. Then there was a scuffle between the boy and Zimmerman, and then the line went dead. Martin, who had been shot by Zimmerman, was pronounced dead at the scene. It would be six weeks before the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department arrested and charged Zimmerman. At his trial, his lawyers invoked Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense law. The conversation nationwide, meanwhile, was about racial profiling. On July 13, 2013, after two days of deliberation, a jury of six—five of whom were white—acquitted Zimmerman of all charges. Like many Black Americans, Tometi, who was living in Brooklyn at the time, can recall how she felt the moment she learned of the verdict. Protesters gathered in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center, phones raised, in Portland, Ore., on July 20, the city's 54th day of protest. More than 2,000 people attended the nighttime demonstration, including parent groups Wall of Moms and PDX Dad Pod. “It completely devastated me,” she says. “I don't think I've ever cried that hard, I was so gutted.” The public’s reaction was immediate: Outside the courthouse, the crowd awaiting the ruling erupted with grief. Al Sharpton called the verdict a "slap in the face to the American people," a sentiment echoed by many, including Tometi. “It hit close to home because my baby brother was 14 years old at the time and Trayvon was 17,” she shares. “And so I couldn't help but think, My brother is seeing these messages. He's seeing this world essentially say that Black lives don't matter.” In Los Angeles, Cullors was similarly devastated. And as a seasoned activist, she wasn’t about to just let this moment pass. “We weren't willing to sit around and wait for an older generation to tell us what to do, so we took it upon ourselves,” Cullors says. Then she read an emotional Facebook post by her friend Garza, a labor organizer and Oakland native. "I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter. ... Our lives matter,” Garza wrote. Cullors replied #BlackLivesMatter, creating the official hashtag that would irrevocably change the social justice conversation. “When I hashtagged #BlackLivesMatter,” she says, “I knew that I wanted it to go viral across social media. But I especially knew that I wanted it to be something that would change the world.” Patrisse Cullors' activism predates BLM. In 2012, she founded Dignity and Power Now, a Los Angeles-based organization whose stated mission is to fight for 'the dignity and power of all incarcerated people, their families and communities.' She's the author of the 2018 bestseller When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, and is the founder of Reform L.A. Jails. She's also an educator and artist who earned her MFA last year. 'I started a gallery and studio space in Inglewood for BIPOC,' says Cullors, who is also a staff writer on the Freeform drama series Good Trouble. Then Tometi caught wind of the hashtag. “When I saw the Facebook message from Alicia saying that our lives matter and then Patrisse’s hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, it hit me in my spirit,” Tometi remembers. “I called Alicia the next morning and was like, 'Can we do this? I want to buy [the web domain]. I want to codify this and invite all the organizers we already know across the country to move this message, use the hashtag and get this word out about the need to demand racial justice in all spheres of our lives.'” The trio began working on the initiative from their respective homes. While the #BlackLivesMatter tag was a little slow to spread in the later half of 2013, it gained prominence a year later, after the cop-related killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and 12-year-old Tamir Rice. According to Pew Research, Twitter logged a sharp uptick in the tag’s usage in November 2014 after a Ferguson, Mo., grand jury decided not to indict officer Darren Wilson, who shot Brown while the unarmed teen’s hands were raised in surrender. In the three weeks following the decision, the tag was used a total of 1.7 million times. As visible activists and community organizers in Ferguson continued to disburse information and resources online through the tag, #BlackLivesMatter turned into a vehicle for delivering real-time, on-the-ground visuals and information that painted a clear picture of what was happening in protesting cities. In New York City, artists painted a Black Lives Matter mural directly onto Fifth Avenue--right in front of Trump Tower. President Trump tweeted his displeasure with the display, accusing the mural of 'denigrating this luxury Avenue.' Meanwhile, street murals continue to manifest in cities across the country, including Seattle, Tulsa, Okla., and Washington, D.C. With each new case of police violence, those ready to fight it turned to BLM as an example of next steps. Before long, offline organizing and the conversations and calls to action that BLM were facilitating online became inextricably linked. In updated research, Pew noted a surge in the tag’s use with an organization record of 8.8 million mentions in a single day—May 28—as global protests grew. “Growing up as a young child in poverty, where it was really hard to grasp my and my community’s worth and value, to create an organization and help contribute to a movement that really centers us is pretty profound,” Cullors says. “I never imagined that I'd be in this position, but I always wanted to be a facilitator of Black love, Black life and Black healing.” The world (and brands) awaken Floyd’s death was the mark of a long overdue tipping point in global race relations. As the worldwide protests dominated the media, the pressure for brands to voice their support for the Black community grew, leading some to join the conversation surrounding racial justice for the first time. “Nascar really surprised me,” Tometi says, referring to the racing organization’s decision to ban the Confederate flag from its events. “It was a pleasant and very good surprise. There's something to be said when this kind of American institution, which is not known for being a space where Black people are affirmed and celebrated, speaks out.” For Cullors, BLM’s impact became apparent with a surprising message of support from a General Mills lunchbox favorite. “Gushers put up some tweets that were totally in support of BLM, and it was the funniest shit ever,” she remembers with a laugh. “It was almost like the public pressure had them like, ‘We’ve gotta say something, we can't be the only ones not saying something!’ That's when I knew. I was like, ‘OK, like we've done our job. What's the next frontier for us?’” At a game between the Miami Marlins and the Toronto Blue Jays, the outfield wall of Sahlen Field is emblazoned with the words 'Black Lives Matter.' Within a week, the Milwaukee Bucks would stage a walkout at a playoff game, and the Marlins and New York Mets would refuse to play a scheduled game at Citi Field in Queens, N.Y., placing a BLM T-shirt on home plate. Similarly, Garza says she was shocked after seeing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell make a statement in favor of the movement on June 5, during the height of national protests. In a video, the longtime commissioner said, “We, the National Football League, believe Black lives matter. I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country.” Just four years prior, Colin Kaepernick was being lambasted for sitting out, and then subsequently kneeling, during the national anthem in protest of state-sanctioned violence. (Kaepernick, who opted out of his 49ers contract, has yet to be picked up by another NFL team.) And just two years ago, Goodell supported an NFL policy that banned on-field kneeling during the anthem, forcing players who refused to obey to remain in the locker room unseen until the anthem was over. “I found it odd, actually,” Garza says of Goodell’s apparent change of heart. “In a moment where several players risked a lot to draw attention to an issue that impacts them directly, the head honcho basically killed their careers. So it was odd to see this very scripted proclamation that was purely symbolic. He hadn't actually done the work.” In 2018, Alicia Garza founded the Black Futures Lab, which is comprised of the Black Imagination Incubator and the Shirley Chisholm 'Unbought and Unbossed' Black Politics Project. The former was the force behind the Black Census, which furnishes politicians with in-depth data pertaining to daily social and economical experiences of Black Americans in hopes that they will craft more well-rounded policies. The survey also led to the creation of the Black Agenda, a tool to organize and inform Black voters ahead of the 2020 election. 'We are really proud to have conducted the largest survey of Black people in America and 155 years,' says Garza. She also started the Black to the Future Action Fund, whose Black Agenda 2020 empowers Black communities to, in its words, 'educate and challenge elected officials, policymakers and legislators to take positions that are beneficial to our community.' Which raises the question: For brands, what’s authentic support and what’s purely performative? BLM’s co-founders believe it’s not enough to just say “Black Lives Matter.” Brands have to follow up with sustained changes and treat it like the call to action that it has always been. Cullors notes that the real work starts from within: “You can say ‘Black Lives Matter’ till you're blue in the face, but what you do inside your corporation matters even more. Who are you hiring? Who is at the leadership level? Your brand might be saying ‘Black Lives Matter’ and yet all your executive staff is white. That's unacceptable.” But many brands are taking steps in the right direction, say the three women. Gushers, for example, not only joined Fruit by the Foot to donate $200,000 to the NAACP, but also partnered with the civil rights organization to form #BlackVoicesCreate, a TikTok campaign that elevates the platforms of Black creatives aiming to spread BLM’s core message and change the future. Ben & Jerry’s, a company that has a long history of civil rights advocacy, supported the moment with a four-point plan for dismantling white supremacy. Garza also notes her appreciation of Netflix’s attempt to course-correct the lack of access to Black-led art with its Black Lives Matter collection, which highlights Black documentaries, shows and films. “What brands are getting right is making sure that they become a repository of information to better understand not only this moment, but also to better understand Black circumstance across the world,” she says. She recalls tuning in to Bravo one evening, expecting to dive into some light reality TV. Instead, she found Andy Cohen and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams speaking with social political comedian and activist W. Kamau Bell about BLM and white privilege in a remote episode of Watch What Happens Live. “Everywhere I went, I was confronted with consumable information that could give me a wide range of perspectives. That made me really happy,” Garza says. Forging a path forward Since its inception, BLM has expanded to a total of 14 U.S. chapters and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver). As the movement has grown, its three co-founders have begun investing their passion in other endeavors. Garza is currently focusing on the upcoming election with Black Futures Lab, an initiative aimed at empowering the Black community with thorough, relevant information to make informed choices at the polls. Tometi developed the newsletter Diaspora Rising, to broaden the public’s discussion of Black liberation to include Black communities around the globe. With years of activism under her belt, Opal Tometi is now an internationally sought-after consultant for brands, burgeoning social movements and leaders in the public and private sectors, including Black Lives Matter. These days she is especially passionate about an emerging platform called Diaspora Rising, which she established. 'It's really a space to celebrate the diversity within our Black communities and share a little bit more about some of the issues that are happening with Black people around the world,' she says. In addition to a newsletter, the project includes Diaspora Rising: Beyond African Liberation Day, a short film that Tometi released earlier this year. And Cullors, who still serves as the director and board president of the global BLM network, the mother and Prescott College professor has also become an impactful figure in the arts through her establishment of an art gallery for artists of color in L.A.’s Inglewood neighborhood, as well as her work on Freeform’s drama series Good Trouble. If BLM’s co-founders share one hope for the immovable movement they’ve created, it’s that it will ultimately lay the groundwork for a deeper discussion that addresses the many forms of anti-Blackness on a global scale and inspires everyday citizens like themselves to act. “We have to push forward and have a new kind of conversation that isn't just about saying ‘Black Lives Matter,’” Cullors adds. “We have to divest out of punishment and policing and into dignity, care and respect.”

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Adweek Interviews the 3 Women Who Founded Black Lives Matter—and Started a Global Movement

Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi take us back to the beginning, and reflect on the work ahead

Shannon Miller

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